What’s a Keyword?

A person has a need/want in life and they don’t know where to get it or they desire more information before making a decision of where to purchase the need/want. They go to the internet and use a search engine to type in what they are looking for. The words the person types are keywords. The search engine takes those words and in a few seconds scans websites to find the best matches for what you are looking for. The websites that appear at the top of the search are websites that have the keywords that match the keywords you typed.

The reason I explain this to you in this simple way is because I want you to think about keywords differently. How many people live within 60 miles of your business? 200,000 – 500,000 – 1,000,000? If 1% of these people are searching for what you sell, how many different ways do you think that 1% type it?

The keywords you select for your website and other SEO marketing things you do is not an easy decision. Your competitor probably wants to be ranked for the same keywords as you do. There are tools that can tell you what people type into search engines. The decision you must analyze is if you are a bicycle store, do you want to be known on the internet as a “bike store your city/state” or “kids mountain bike your city/state” or “how to fix a flat bike tire” or “top rated bike helmets”. All these are searches are done by people who need what a bicycle store offers. There are good reasons to choose each and some not so good reasons. “I want them all” you say! That’s another blog for another day.